Your Thoughts on a 1/8¢ Sales Tax for Enhanced 911

Enhanced 911 Sales Tax Initiative = 1/8 Cent

Please share your opinions of the 1/8 Cent sales tax initiative that will fund an enhanced and fully staffed 911 Call Center that will provide superior services to the entire county.

My family and I are supporting this sales tax proposal.

Best regards,
Brad

—–Reply by Harper on October 29, 2008 at 9:37am
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I could support a 911 Call Center, I’m just not sure that a sales tax is the best way to fund it.
—– Reply by Brad Moore on October 29, 2008 at 9:53am
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What other source of funding do you suggest?Thanks,
Brad
—– Reply by Harper on October 29, 2008 at 10:24am
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I don’t know that I have a good solution for funding. But we can’t be tacking every worthwhile project on to the sales tax. Property tax or turn-back funds maybe? Repeal the hamburger tax and then add the Call Center to sales tax?
—– by Brad Moore on October 29, 2008 at 11:22am
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The hamburger tax is voluntary. Sales tax is added to everything you purchase.

Turnback money are designated for road improvements (generally speaking).
—– Reply by Harper on October 29, 2008 at 11:34am
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The hamburger tax is voluntary. ???

I guess you could say that all sales tax is voluntary, since if you don’t buy anything you don’t pay any tax. But the last time I visited Sonic they didn’t ask me if I chose to pay the hamburger tax.
—– Reply by Brad Moore on October 29, 2008 at 11:42am
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Good point and I understand. My point being, it is not necessary to eat a Hamburger at the Sonic. In contrast, there is no way to avoid retail purchases.
—– Reply by Shelli Poole on October 29, 2008 at 11:02am
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Thanks for posting this, Brad. There’s a bug that’s being worked on, but it’s causing all Matt’s attempts to post this to be be deleted. I swear it’s not me!
—– Reply by Brad Moore on October 29, 2008 at 11:21am
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Spend $8.00 = $0.01 of tax.
—– Reply by Brad Moore on October 29, 2008 at 11:42am
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What is 1/8th on $8,000,000?
—– Reply by Brad Moore on October 29, 2008 at 2:44pm
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1 MILLION PENNIES.
—– Reply by Matt on October 29, 2008 at 11:41am
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Harper: No one likes a tax. However currently the 3 – 911 systems in Saline County are funded by Saline County Resident’s tax dollars specifically (Land Line Tax on Phone Bill, $592,000 of Benton General Fund Money, $392,000 of Saline County General Fund Money, and $362,500 dollars budgeted from the City of Bryant’s General Fund). Under a sales tax methodology, each and every person, whether they live in Saline County or not, that has a point of purchase transaction on a sales taxable item will pay into the Saline County 911 system. This means that the individual that does not live in Saline County, but makes a purchase here and later has to utilize our 911 system (because of an accident etc.) has paid into the system through their earlier purchase. Again it is 1 penny on an $8 purchase. This would allow for all the General fund monies currently spent, returning to their respective municipalities and unincorporated areas to be used in a potentially more productive manner. This is not to mention the enhancements in safety that this center will provide.
—– Reply by Harper on October 29, 2008 at 12:40pm
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You have made a more logical argument for sales tax funding. And I am certainly not in opposition to a new county wide Call Center. The only point I would make is that we must not view worthwhile projects in isolation, but as a part of all that we can afford. Out of all the things we might want from government, we should choose those that are most important to us, because we can’t have it all. Maybe a new Call Center should come before some other stuff.

—– Reply by Greg White on October 29, 2008 at 8:04pm
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The dollars turned back to the Benton General Fund will be over $500,000 a year. With this type of money restored to the General Fund, we will be able to fund Advanced Life Support in our Fire Department. This program was cut in 2005 and it is a priority that was noted in the final report from the Citizens Committee on Public Safety. So a new call center and the above mentioned program will be reinstated with just the initiation of the 1/8 cent county sales tax.
The Council has been divided over consolidation of services in the past. However, under the current sentiment of working together with County, I believe that more alderman are leaning toward this as a positive move. Some employees of the city will become County employees and I believe that has some people concerned about benefits, etc.
—–Reply by Chris Eaton on October 29, 2008 at 4:54pm
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Where can I read the initiative?
—– Reply by Shelli Poole on October 29, 2008 at 8:07pm
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Here’s an article on the two ballot initiatives, 911 and animal control. I looks as though a representative of the site, newly discovered (by me, anyway) www.oureastend.com interviewed JP Pat Bisbee themselves, since it doesn’t note some other source.
—– Reply by Chris Eaton on October 29, 2008 at 10:57pm
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From what I understand Benton does not have to provide 911 funds, it’s the responsibility of the County. As a city we are spending quite a bit of money on what is a woefully inadequate setup. I’m still not sure what the inititave reads
—– Reply by Paul Farley on October 29, 2008 at 6:22pm
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I voted for it and I rarely vote for tax increases. Some others I vote for are for school funding if the measure is appropriate. We need this to pass. I have spent many hours with the Saline County Sheriff’s department with a former job and anyone in law enforcement or anyone that has recently been in law enforcement in this county should know that we need this very badly. Better response to 911 calls can and will save lives, property, and more.
—– Reply by Shelli Poole on October 29, 2008 at 7:55pm
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Are the cities of Benton and Bryant (not the residents, the 911 operations and the mayor, council & emergency workers) amenable to consolidating?
—– Reply by Matt on October 29, 2008 at 9:48pm
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The Benton City Council voted to support the initiative and the Quorum Court voted to allow it on the ballot. I do not know of any official position taken by the Bryant City Council.
—– Reply by Shelli Poole on October 29, 2008 at 10:28pm
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Thanks Matt. My mom wants to know where to read that initiative. I explained that it was to upgrade the 911 system and she started asking questions I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t find anything on the county website.
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on October 30, 2008 at 12:30am
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What benefit will the tax provide for county residents outside of city limits? When it comes to fire and ems you are still at the mercy of volunteer fire departments. These people work very hard for their community but their numbers are greatly dwindling, I know because I used to be a fire chief in this county. So what benefit will a better 911 center do for us when we rely on limited resources? This tax initiative was poorly planned and a waste of the taxpayers money. If you want to improve the Office of Emergency Management and its resources you are going to have to go deeper than buying them new equipment. Why not a tax that would work towards a countywide fire and ems system that would pay for firefigher/ems personnel on staff 24/7 throughout the county and upgrade a 911 center at the same time? The Our JP’s and County Judge have failed to see the big picture here and we are going to suffer for it. Keep in mind what good is it going to do having a better 911 center if it still takes 20 minutes to get help?
—– Reply by Chris Eaton on October 30, 2008 at 6:52am
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If you live in the county it’s going to take longer for you to get emergency services, that’s why your insurance rates are higher. Most people live in a city, is it fair for them to shoulder a heavy cost to purchase what would amount to an unbalanced amount of equipment for county services? I think not.
—– Reply by Matt on October 30, 2008 at 5:29pm
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Chris: I do not have an electronic copy of the ballot initiative. And it does not appear the county website has any current sample ballots. I know you can go by the Freddy Burton’s office and request a copy of a sample ballot. Also, your understanding that Benton and Bryant do not have a responsibility to dispatch is correct. Benton could hand their keys over to the county today and the county would have to accept the responsibility.Kenneth: In regards to your question on, how will this help us in the county that have to wait 20 minutes for an emergency responder. 1. We will make the caller into a first responder, through Emergency Medical Dispatch. Currently when you call 911 you do not receive pre-arrival instructions from the dispatcher. So if you need to provide CPR or someone is choking, you are not provided life saving directions while waiting on the responders. Everything out there currently as it relates to Neurological and Cardiovascular care stresses the importance of time (AHA). Whether it be a CVA (stroke), Heart Attack, or choking. I could go on and on about the stats as they relate to immediate and continuous CPR etc. Under the proposed system these very important services would be provided by trained, certified dispatchers. Also through GPS the responder and the dispatcher would be able to locate your location in a much more expedient manner, and through GIS the fire department would be able to locate fireplugs in a more expedient manner. Lastly a response time is broken into a couple of different sections. Your reaction time is the time from Call received to time a unit is dispatched, and then the remainder is enroute time to time of arrival. This system can decrease reaction time greatly. Currently if you require Police, Fire or EMS and your emergency is outside of Benton then your call will be transferred at least once and possibly twice. Please keep in mind that an emergency could care less where you and your family reside. Traumatic events are all about equal opportunity and those that live and travel in and through Saline County deserve the opportunity to the best in Emergency response and 911 services.
—–Reply by Kenneth Ray on October 30, 2008 at 9:40pm
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Mr Brumley I presume? You missed the point of my comment. Number one, The facilities board from my understanding was given numerous options of ways to run a 911 center in which the dispatchers could provide assistance though the use of EMD’s and other systems. I know that you and judge Fite and Gil and others went to MEMS and was shown ways in which the system could be run but opted to not follow a tried and trusted system because of costs. I dont care whether you choose EMD, APCO, or whatever. and as far as GPS goes that is not going to benefit the responder unless they have their own gps unit in their units. GIS is the same way so unless you plan on putting those things in each truck dont waste my time explaining it to me. And since Gil Carpenter is trying to change the way ACT 833 funding is distributed throughout the county that means if he is successful there is that much more money gone from the department for these purchases. I know that with EMD cards you are able to flip through to whatever the caller is describing with a plan of action and says step by step what the dispatcher should say to them. And yes since I am not incompetent I can go on and on about stats as well. If a patient has something like an acute subdural hematoma from an mva it doesnt matter what steps that dispatcher takes if there is no help for 20 minutes. Wow I bet you didnt think I knew those things did ya. Maybe MEDTRAN should find a system in which it would reduce their response time. Or better yet why dont we have MEMS take over our ambulance service. At least then you would see more than three units stretched across one of the largest counties in the state. As far as “equal opportunity” goes as you stated at the end of your message; lets look at that. If you want equal opportunity throughout the county then the county should improve the ems system as a whole and not one section. If you took that 1/8 cent sales tax you could put abour 10 firefighters/ems personell in districts throughout the county that would be fully trained to handle any emergency. Improve the 911 center with an EMD card system and you would cut the amount of transferred calls in dispatch and you would have a system that would keep the center from being sued so long as they followed those cards to the letter and did not “ad-lib.” Paid trained personell would be able to respond in less than half the time with the assistance of volunteer firefighters/ems personell. All this tax is is a way to get 911 employees off the current county payroll so to speak and to buy new equipment for them. Its sad that you cant even garner support of this tax from leaders of the field of emergency management. Your wasting taxpayer dollars with a halfcocked plan at improving 911 operations. You need to go back to the drawing board and formulate a better plan based on the opinions of the fire chiefs and the citizens of the cities and this county before you come up with another one. Lastly I have volunteered as a firefighter/ems responder/ deputy and a fire Chief in this county so do not attempt to blow smoke back up my tailpipe.

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Permalink Reply by Matt on October 31, 2008 at 4:46pm
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Kenneth: Your presumption that I am Matt Brumley is dead on. Try as I might to disguise myself it just does not seem to work…..next time I might try a name like Matthew, maybe that will throw them off. Seriously thanks for your comments; I do think it is important to let you know that there was not a trip to MEMS to evaluate their EMD system and reject it because of cost. Our board actually investigated systems that were a countywide model that were not exclusively dispatching one discipline of emergency response. Systems such as MECA in Jefferson County run under the leadership of Melinda Elliot and Hot Spring County by speaking with Mayor Northcutt. We have also looked at a CAD based EMD system by Priority Dispatch, this system does not use the flip cards you were speaking of, rather a computer based system that prompts the dispatchers thru set protocols and algorithms that are all recorded (audio, and each key stroke for QA purposes) along with the amount of time it takes to get the call out. Our plan is to actually put technology into responding vehicles which would ultimately allow for mapping and other communications to be sent directly to the responding vehicle (things such as status change of a patient and or incident, for responders). These funds (1/8 cent sales tax) go specifically to Emergency communications, which might include infrastructure and improvements to equipment of our responders. I cannot speak to any of the ACT 833 money, as it does not pertain to the Public Facilities Board. To the latter portion of your comment, it sounds like you might be talking the same language as our board…”Improve 911 center with an EMD card system and you would cut transferred calls…” We have given our presentation more than 30 times since Oct. 1st and if you have not had the opportunity to see it, ask questions, and give comment I would be more than happy to set-up a time some time between now and Tuesday night. Really that goes for anyone that is interested in being informed, no matter how you may vote
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on October 31, 2008 at 6:46pm
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Matt, I promise you I am not trying to be negative about your intentions for improvements to the 911 system. Over the last ten years that I have volunteered for this county we have made minimal to no improvement in which we respond to emergency calls. The issue for me is the fact that we have departments running antiquated equipment to calls and working scenes with minimal training and not enough people. No matter how this tax is spent I do not see the gains to the citizens of this county. If this tax passes regardless of the system you choose to run whether it be EMD cards or whatever; we are still going to be in the same situation we are in now. Departments cannot get training because they can’t afford it and Camden is very unwilling to provide assistance due to budget restrictions. I don’t care what Camden says that is the case. I have seen it that way for the last ten years from those people. People in the city limits may not care about the county because MEDTRAN resides in the limits and they have municiple protection. They have responses of an average of 6 minutes. What about areas like South Sardis or Lake Norrell who still takes 20 minutes for a paramedic. I understand it is not entirely your fault as like me you are given a budget and you have to live your means in it. The problem lies in the fact that our quorom court members would prefer to get dog catchers than to improve fire/ems response. Present a set plan on how it would benefit the people of the county the most important way, FINANCIALLY. You get a system set in this county that would work to reduce ISO ratings (which in turn as you know would reduce insurance ratings) and improve our 911 system by more qualified people and better response times then you would garner more support to the public. It doesnt matter what you show me I will still be voting NO on tuesday. Just like many in the emergency services of this county already have in early voting. If you want my vote then this is what will need to happen. Replace our County Judge, Most of our Quorom Court, and certian persons in OEM, and certain persons on the public facilities boards and firefighters association. There are people in this county who have no business holding the positions they hold in this county because they do not know what they are doing. And yes we have met but it has been awhile. I resigned from The Lake Norrell Fire Department last year as Fire Chief after moving to the city limits of Benton. The name is Kenneth Ray and although I may not be a member I still love this county and care about the citizens of it.
—–Reply by Matt on October 31, 2008 at 9:02pm
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Mr. Ray: I appreciate your comments and respect your cander and of course your right to a NO vote. I know you have said ,nothing I say or do will change your mind, other than some things that I think you know are a bit unrealalistic (booting out judges Q-court members etc.) I would be remiss if I did not tell you that we did contact the Insurance Standards Org. and ask for the call volume matrix. They stated for 50,000 – 100,000 alarms you must have 5 dispatchers and a supervisor in the facility to gain their optimal rating. We have exceeded that with 6 and 1 and 1 Director and 2 911 addressers. So there is a great chance this will positively affect some and will not negitively affect any. Please also accept my appreciation for your service to those who are in need of help within our county. with out our first responders our system would suffer greatly. I have always respected greatly, our first responders and I hope my actions have shown that. I would hope that you might reconsider and allow me to show you our plan, please know that it is unlikely anyone will ever have the magic wand to fix everything all at once, but we can start somewhere and move to the next solution. Please continue your good works and stay safe.
—– Reply by Matt on October 31, 2008 at 9:11pm
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One more thing I want to make it clear that by saying we have an oppertunity to improve our system, we are not slighting the men and women that currently work as dispatchers. We have some of the very best there are to offer and they too deserve an oppertunity to an improved center.
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on October 31, 2008 at 10:01pm
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I agree on the dispatchers. I know them and have met them over the years and have even sat in the center with them and watched how they work. I do not underestimate their capabilities. But I can tell you firsthand from personal experience on how our oem system works and the lack of initiative of our county judge. After the flooding incident during the Hurricane Gustaz deal in which I lost my home, I saw the the lack of care of our County Judge who only expressed his interest in money for the county for tree removal and not its citizens. It took special favors from friends to even get them to talk to me. If you want to start somewhere for change then you need innovative people in our county judges seat and our Quorom court members. No one came to help me when I lost my home, I had to track down the help on my own. Jolene and Lori from OEM were the only ones who even came to my home other than the Mayor of Benton (whom of which only did so after certain calls). The way our OEM is run is out of date and substandard when It comes to emergency response. The operators are great but above that gets kind of sad. But when all it’s all said and done at the end of the day the same areas will be waiting for the same system of response. You are fighting an uphill battle with the people who decide how to spend our money because they don’t know how to do it.
—– Reply by Gil Carpenter on November 1, 2008 at 10:18am
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Kenneth, I would like to address your comment on redistributing the Act 833 funds. I am president of the firefighters association, that represents all of the fire departments in this county, and that association presented the proposal to submit to the intergovernmental council for their consideration the change in the redistribution of Act 833 funds. Currently all funds are split equally among all fire departments in the county. The proposal the firefighters association put forward will still split the money equally to the fire departments that are wholly in the county, but if a fire department shares in two or more counties they will receive a reduced rate because they are receiving Act 833 money from the other county or counties they service. This rate is determined by the number of residences that are in this county in comparison to the number or residence overall in their department. Some of the mayors requested a more fair and equal split because of Crystal Fire Department, they service less than 50 homes in our county and they recieve the same amount of money as Benton, Bryant, Salem, Lake Norrell, etc, nearly $16,000.00 this year. This will only impact six of the twenty-three departments that service our county. If you would like to see the proposal, I have copies and would be glad to show you and explain in more detail. I would like to stress that Act 833 funds and the 1/8th cent sales tax for 911 are two separate issues.
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on November 1, 2008 at 12:35pm
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I know how all funds are split from when I was in the association. If you want to change things then why don’t you get the departments to agree on re-drawing of the district lines. The 833 money was designed for volunteer fire departments to recieve funding that they otherwise would not get from dues or taxes. The people of Lonsdale or Lake Norrell are no more or less special than the people of Benton or Bryant. The basis of your plan is to essentially open it up to where smaller departments essentially have no say in the matter. It already became harder for small departments after the last Legislative session when they started requiring vonteers to meet 24 hours a year of certified training. Failure to do so results in the ineligibility of 833 funding. I have been in those meeting in the past where Bryant and Benton both wanted a bigger share of the 833 funding. In my opinion they shouldn’t get any. Both are full-time paid departments who recieve funding from sales taxes and so on. The intent of act 833 was not for them. As far as Crystal, West Pulaski and others go, why don’t you get them to reconsider re-drawing district lines. It’s pretty sad when there is a residence on West Lawson and instead of going with Lake Norrell the resident has to wait for West Pulaski to respond from Col Glenn Rd. several miles away in Pulaski County. Same as Thompson Dairy Rd and other areas. It looks to me that the association should look more at addressing these issues rather than changing the way 833 is distributed. Once it has changed then the smaller departments will recieve less and less each year to the bigger ones. Each resident in the county deserves the same response with proper equipment. You may be a experienced Benton Firefighter but you need to reconsider your proposal, you aren’t lighting up a fire scene, your making it darker by removing funding. Re-draw those lines and your issues with departments residing in other counties would be resolved. How about a much smarter idea. Go to a county-wide fire department and it would be re-solved altogether.
—– Reply by Matt on November 3, 2008 at 4:24pm
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Chuck: Thanks for your comments and questions. I am going to attempt to hit on a couple of them very briefly as I am on the run. However I have mentioned many times, anyone that has questions please contact me. Consolidation: The city of Benton has officially supported this by ordinance. I would expect that they would divest and the Public Facility Board would now become responsible for Benton’s 911 calls. There is no way to force anyone to join, just as there was no way to force them to stay when Benton decided to separate from the county. I have confidence in our leadership that they would do what was right and confidence the citizens of Benton would not be very fond of a sales tax being collected and Benton not participating in the system. Equipment: In the beginning the equipment would have to be purchased and would remain in place as it would take time to build a new facility. You would also have redundancy in your system by having two facilities now…….in case of a disaster, need for evacuation, or communication systems failing in the center due to a lightening strike, like the one that struck the current center in April, impeding communications. Operations: You are 100% correct when you say I have no business deciding the in’s and out’s of operations. I have said many times that I am not a dispatcher and all operations should be left up to the Director and his/her staff. I have also stated we would put out a nation wide request for application for this position. That is typical of most Board structures. Why were the Dispatchers never included/ blatant disregard for input or suggestions of the dispatchers: I have offered to give this presentation to any and all City of Benton Employees….Police, Fire, and Communications. I requested this thru each respective departments Leadership by Email and phone calls. Just curious, was this offer not extended to you? Facility: The board has contacted Saline County Economic Development and they have agreed to participate in being our site locaters. This is in efforts of complete transparency and no preferential/ political decisions on site locations. SCEDC represents the entire county and are very well versed in site locations. I know this probably did not answer all of your questions but you may still call me if you wish 231-9590. Leave a message if I do not answer, and I will call you back.
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on November 3, 2008 at 8:15pm
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I was there when the decision was made as to who would run the board. There was no input. The names were listed and they were asked and the positions were accepted. I would have liked to have served on the board but outside of the names (and acouple others I believe since then) listed there were no options. It has been those names since that day it was decided that we were going to have a Public Facility Board. Chuck I do agree with you on this matter in regards to the wrong people being on the board. When I was Fire Chief I was never asked for my input and after a certian point I quit associating with the firefighters association because they are just spinning wheels and wasting time due to poor direction and leadership. There are some ego’s involved in this county and they do not care what your input is nor mine. AS far as EMD, you would have to ask Matt but I think he said they were going to maybe go with Priority Dispatch. Do not take my word for it though. As far as disasters go and things of that nature we are snookered in that area. The night of those April Tornados I sat for over an hour in the Middle of the Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park due to too many Chiefs and not enough indians. My patient had been pinned under a tree and after we finally got her out from the assistance of Police and fire everyone disappeared and it took Shane Broadway to get me help. Our mutual aid system and multijurisdictional command is a joke in this county. This is due to poor training and lack of interest by the upper heads. Instead they would rather waste time upgrading the 911 system again after doing so in the laste three years. And how much did it cost us to upgrade? Matt might know but that would be better left for Lanny Fite to answer. So once again due to improper planning our Judge and Court members and Facilites Board is trying to ram a new system down our throats without true planning and input from all involved. Like I said I am like you Chuck no one came to me and asked for my input and when I gave it anyway it just went in one ear and out the other.
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on November 11, 2008 at 4:50pm
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It may have failed but the county is redrawing the proposal at this time and is considering doing a special election for it. Once again a waste of our taxpayer dollars for a special election when the citizens of the county have already profoundly said no to the tax.
—– Reply by Larry Hacker on December 7, 2008 at 9:16am
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My understanding is that 1/8 cent is the smallest sales tax increment
allowed by Arkansas law. 1/8 cent will generate a milllion or more dollars annually than county officials have stated they need for this 911 consolidation !Additionally, each of the last 2 or 3 years have seen over half a million dollars increase from preceeding year in the county general 5 mill revenue.
This increase is because of increased appraisals and new growth. This money would pay for the 911 consolidation.

I have all of the county tax doc on file and would have to go back and
look at them for the exact $$$’s, but any attempt to bring this
back will get a lot of flack from me.

Larry Hacker
—– Reply by Kenneth Ray on December 7, 2008 at 12:06pm
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Larry My issue isnt with the intent of the tax. I believe if it was properly structured that it would greatly benefit the cities and county. However the people who proposed this bill chose not to follow examples emergency services in other counties of this state and others. If you want to a see a county that has its collective poo together go to Benton County. I have pushed and will continue to push for a countywide fire department and consolodation of volunteer fire departments in this county. This would benefit the citizens of this county more than improving the 911 center. We just spent several hundred thousand dollars doing that not too long ago (within the last two years) and now they went to redo everything. We should spend money properly training and staffing a countywide department with utilization of part-time and volunteer firefighters (the last of which donate their time for free). You have a county fire association president who is too big for his britches and doesnt know what he is doing and everyone is just following his lead because he is a full-time paid firefighter. I guess since he is paid by benton he knows what is best for the entire county. Bah! A three-legged dog named whiskey could do a better job than that.